Smitten by the iPad: thoughts and complaints.

I was tricked by the gravitational forces that an apple product announcement causes into visiting the apple store. Five hundred bucks later I walked out of the apple store with a fancy new iPad. Excited and Doh!

The iPad is a new and very exciting paradigm for computing. I played with it afternoon and it felt very minority report. It felt like the future. no physical keyboard. I was controlling things with my finger/mind. it was awesome. I am smitten.

Besides the irrational distortion field emitted by this shiny device, I have some general thoughts/complaints on the iPad.

1. The lack of camera is irrational. I have no idea why apple didn't include two cameras on the iPad. It would be an amazing device for parents, students, people, etc. Chatting is annoying on non-multitasking devices, however it might be nice to Skype with a slate like device. It will obviously be added to the next iteration of this device.
2. The iWork cloud platform is annoying. Importing and exporting documents is very hard. It is obviously not meant to be used by people who have documents already. The only way to get shit on the device is to download it. Why wouldn't Apple integrate iWork with MobileMe? silly. Google will have to change their Docs platform to allow easy downloading from the mobile google docs page.
3. The lack of any clock or alarm app very strange. I use the clock app on the iphone for a lot of stuff. not having that is a bummer. but in the grand scheme of bummers its about a 0.00001/5.
4. There is no usb host mode (that i know of). I would love to charge my phone, etc via USB with this device. it would minimize the number of cables and what not i would bring. It would also be awesome to plugin external disks or keyboards to it.
5. Google Reader blows on the iPad. This is a real bummer since that is pretty much the one thing i want to have all the time. You can't scroll with the desktop version and the mobile version seems silly on the iPad. I can't wait for Google to "fix" all of their webapps for the iPad.
6. Using an iPhone after spending a lot of time on the iPad makes the iPhone seem like a midget. It makes the nexus one seems like it is made out of paper.
7. The iPad is probably one of the coolest ways to show presentations to someone while sitting at a bar. I have been pitching some ideas to people and having the iPad with my deck is pretty awesome. A great way to go over your presentation with one or two people. Way better than a laptop.
8. The Kindle app is awesome. I like it a lot. I want to try reading a book on the iPad, but i really like the kindle's screen.
9. Most of the apps are boring. Seriously. The apps that are impressive are: Kayak, Maps, Photos, Kindle, Twitterrific, instapaper, Netflix and Square
10. Square is one of the coolest apps I have seen. It should blow peoples minds. I imagine that it will be a game changer for friends who do retail. I can't wait for my square card reader to show up. I will be charging my friends for everything.
11. This is an amazing device for casual internet use. I imagine that Hiromi, my parents, my brother and anyone else who isn't attached to a computer all day long would love these devices.

Overall the iPad is amazing. I can't wait to see how developers iterate on the platform and create really nifty applications. It will also be fun to see what features Apple magically unlocks on the iPad.

I am going to try and build some applications now. If you have ideas - let me know.